Wednesday, 14 June 2017

AUC ALUMNA WINS FIRST PLACE AT INTERNATIONAL HACKATHON FOR APP EMPOWERING REFUGEES

June 13,
2017, Cairo – Radwa Hamed '16, who recently graduated last winter with
a double major in computer engineering and electronics and communications
engineering from The American University in Cairo (AUC), and her team won first
place at the NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) International Hackathon for Social Good in
the Arab World for developing an application, Hiat. The application is a job
portal platform and digital wallet that allows refugees to access job
opportunities as well as manage their salaries and finances.

“Refugees
don’t have any legal documentation when it comes to dealing with banks and
financial institutions,” said Hamed. “This app allows refugees to receive their
salaries through the digital wallet and then use the app to shop at local
stores and establish a credit history.” Since refugees are able to attain their
work permits in Turkey, Hamed’s team decided to concentrate on Turkey as the
target market.

At
the three-day event, students from around the world gathered to brainstorm
innovative solutions to social issues through the creation of mobile and web
applications. Students were asked to consider challenges related to the topics
of education, art and culture, refugees and underprivileged populations, and
the Arabic language. Hamed’s team was made up of students from Argentina, the
United States, United Arab Emirates and Switzerland. Hamed was the only team
member from AUC.

“The
first phase is the ideation phase, where students are individually asked to
propose ideas for applications,” Hamed explained. Having previously
participated in the Global Hult Prize Challenge with her fellow AUC students,
she already had an idea in mind for a job portal platform for refugees built as
a mobile application.

Hamed’s
idea was voted as one of the top 12 ideas, and she was paired with a team and
mentor, Islam El Ashi, a software engineer at Twitter. “The chance to present
this idea from a business perspective at the Hult competition and then be able
to see it come to life at the NYUAD Hackathon from a technical perspective was
amazing,” she reflected.

Hamed
and her team were able to overcome a number of obstacles while working to technically
implement the application. “Data collection was difficult because the refugee
population is not well-documented when it comes to market research,” she said.
“We also faced a challenge because of the language barrier and the fact that
many refugees do not have access to the 3G network. We developed the entire
framework in SMS and had to make sure to add machine translation to translate
between Turkish and Arabic.”

Even
with these difficulties, the team was successful in building a model and
pitching it to the judges, earning them first place in the competition.

“I am personally fond of getting to network
with people and loved this experience,” said Hamed, reflecting on the wide
range of individuals she encountered at the competition. “Even within the field
of computer engineering, students can come from such diverse backgrounds,” she
observed.

These
diverse academic profiles contributed to the success of the idea pitch at the
competition. “All of the unique insights from my team members and the research
we had conducted for the Hult competition helped to make the app a reality,”
Hamed said.

Having
seen two successes, Hamed now foresees a real future for the business model and
innovative application. “My Hackathon team members and I hope to continue developing
the idea for this app to better fit Egypt and target its slum populations,” she
said. “We believe this idea has a huge potential of not only helping refugees,
but also any other vulnerable population to sustain a respectful form of
living."

Hamed
and her team are now in the process of meeting with investors to discuss future
possibilities. "With rising misfortune in the world,” Hamed said, “there
is a need for social entrepreneurial ideas that incite social development,
micro-finance and innovative ideation in order to give back to the community.
Being part of this movement provides me with a sense of self-fulfillment
because I’m able to personally develop and make an impact.”